History classes to study across Europe

The Department of History has created a new Study Abroad Program that covers a century of war and peace in Europe.

The program will offer a course in the History of Recent Europe, HIST 474, taught by Dr. Ron Morgan, chair of the history department.

“It occurred to me a couple months ago that we would be at the hundredth anniversary of the outbreak of World War I, so we’re calling the program ‘Europe in War and Peace: 1914 – 2014’,” he said. “We’ll be covering World War I, World War II, the Cold War, the European Union and the transformation of a peaceful Europe.”

Morgan said the program will be based in Oxford, England. The trip to continental Europe will consist of stops in Berlin and Leipzig, Germany and Prague, Czech Republic.

Study abroad coordinator Rachel Brown said the program fee for students is $1,800 – which does not include round-trip tickets to Europe like most other Study Abroad programs.

“Because the program is aimed at students who have previously studied abroad we have decided not to include airfare in the program fee,” she said. “That, coupled with the shorter time frame of the trip, makes the program fee less than some of our other summer programs, although there will be more additional costs.”

The idea for the program was conceived last summer, Morgan said.

“A year ago, the history department took over responsibility for the new degree for international studies,” he said. “My goal is to create programs, especially in the early summer, that can be based in Europe and that can connect with the spring semester programs.”

Students studying abroad in Leipzig, Germany and Oxford, England can take advantage of the block tuition plan and go right into the [maymester or early summer] program.

The 2014 trip is scheduled for May 12 – 27.

The program will change in 2015 to include another History course, an English course and upper-level Cornerstone course. After 2015, the program will only be offered every other year.